Developer unveils plans for big Redmond urban-village project

A massive planned community on 28 acres next to Microsoft in Redmond could break ground in June and promises to allow 8,000 people to live, work and play in the same place, developers said Wednesday.

Capstone Partners and its financial partner Lionstone Investments said in a statement that their 3 million-square-foot community called Esterra Park will offer a live-work campus with the added benefits of a park and hotel.

The former medical-campus site, between 156th Avenue Northeast and 152nd Avenue Northeast, is between Microsoft and the Overlake shopping center. It’s the first major redevelopment of Overlake Village since the area was built in the 1960s and ’70s.

When completed, Esterra Park would have 1.2 million square feet of commercial office space, about 1,400 residential units and a 250-room hotel. The planned development is across the street from a future Link light-rail station slated to open in 2023.

According to Capstone, Esterra Park could be home eventually to 40,000 people. The development’s name is a mashup of the words “east” and “terra” — Latin for Earth.

Last March, Capstone and Lionstone bought the land from Group Health for about $33 million.

Capstone last spring began demolishing the 500,000-square-foot hospital and medical buildings, said Mike Hubbard, a principal at Capstone Partners, which has offices in Seattle and Portland.

In January, Redmond’s design-review board approved plans for 500 units to be developed by national apartment developer AvalonBay Communities, Hubbard said. Construction on those will begin in summer.

The developer has begun building roads and is awaiting final city approval on designs for its office buildings in its first phase. The three office buildings, which will add 650,000 square feet of space to the market, will be next to a 2.7-acre park in the community center.

In the second phase, the developer will add an additional 550,000 square feet of office space.

Hubbard said Lionstone has agreed to finance the office construction once it has pre-leased 100,000 square feet.

Capstone expects construction on the hotel to start in early 2015.

Significantly bigger than Esterra Park will be Bellevue’s Spring District. It is also designed as a place for technology firms’ employees to live, work and play in the same community.

On 36 acres, the Spring District will eventually offer more than 5.3 million square feet. The first portion is to open in late 2015.